Love's Cruel Redemption (The Ghost Bird #12)(44)

“Vic, you never give me kisses!” He laughed and then shifted to put me in the center and himself on the edge. With me in the middle on my side, and Victor on his, we three barely had enough room.

It surprised me Victor was going along with it. It had me giggling.

Victor pressed to my stomach, Luke at my back, but it was a mess of legs, and I couldn’t fully relax.

Luke hugged the both of us with one arm thrown over me and holding to Victor’s shoulder and then chuckled. “Do we have to get separate bedrooms? A few of us fit in a bed just fine.”

Victor chuckled but then sat up. “How long where you standing there?”

“Inside? Only for a minute. Sang noticed.” His goofy smile told me he’d been listening at the door for a while.

Victor combed his hair with his fingers and then sat up. “I may as well start my hook up. I’ve got a few feeds to split.” I think he meant some computer stuff, but I could only guess at what specifically.

“Wait, don’t go,” Luke said. “Let’s play cuddle.”

Victor rolled his eyes and shook his head, but he did laugh. He went to the table that was set up with some gear, laptops and tablets across the top. It was pressed to the far side, facing windows that were closed with blinds.

“He’s no fun, is he?” Luke asked me and winked. He scooped me a bit until he could move me over and then gave himself more room. “Want to watch a movie? We’ve got time to kill.”

I didn’t have anything to do other than wait until that night. We spent some time watching a movie. Victor listened and, every once in a while, would comment on something. Luke brought dinner from the diner after.

Before I knew it, it was nightfall. Luke had gone. I was playing a game on my phone to distract myself when North walked in shortly after ten.

I looked up, finding North in all black again, wearing a turtleneck and a black cotton hat. The sight of him with the hat preoccupied me.

He scoped me out still in the school uniform. “Why aren’t you ready?”

“I am ready,” I said. I climbed out of the beanbag and stood up. The backs of my legs had red marks from where I’d been sitting for so long. “I’ve been waiting.”

Victor looked over his shoulder at North and then at me. “Oh, I forgot. Sorry. Sang, I was supposed to tell you to change into dark clothing.”

He forgot? That wasn’t like him. And we’d been here all afternoon.

North groaned and then went over to the desk. “What the hell are you doing you couldn’t break from to tell her?”

“Nothing!” Victor said and closed his laptop, but his eyes lit up and he looked at me. “There are clothes in the next room. Your bag is marked.”

“I won’t be long,” I said, dashing off before North had more reason to get after Victor. Whatever he was up to, I imagined he had good reason for being so distracted.

I left the door partially opened. North teetered in the hallway, hovering between me and Victor.

I found a pink duffle bag I imagined was for me. I opened it, finding options in dark clothing. I slipped dark pants on under the skirt before removing the skirt and putting it aside. The shirt was more difficult, but I simply turned a bit from North, took it off, set it aside and put on the dark, turtleneck. They were both very snug. I also put on dark boots, not heavy, but enough to be protective.

Spy clothes, or so it felt.

North gazed in at me through the doorway, his lips twisted.

“What?” I asked.

He shook his head and then motioned. “Let’s go. Don’t bring your phone.”

I pulled it out from my bra and thought where to put it. Then I moved around North through the tiny space between the two rooms and went over to Victor.

Victor had his laptop open, but he turned it slightly when I approached. “Be careful out there,” he said.

I passed him my phone. “Hang on to this for me.”

He nodded and slipped it into his back pocket. “The one time you hand it to me not yet broken.”

I smirked. “Not yet.”

“I give it two more days,” he said with a chuckle.

I did have a bad habit of losing or breaking them.

North held open the door for me and peeked out. “Time to move.”

North and I dashed over to the Jeep between people going in and out of the diner. Once I was in, I quickly put on my seatbelt.

North put a flip phone on the dash above the radio and then started the engine.

“I thought you said no...” I paused and then shook my head. “Oh wait, emergency.” It was something that Luke did once when we were going to do something dangerous. I hadn’t expected this to be a similar situation.

He nodded shortly and threw the Jeep into reverse. Soon we were on the road and taking a detour route back to Ashley Waters. Traffic had all but cleared out. Neighborhoods were mostly dark and quiet.

I breathed in sharply, feeling excitement creeping up through me. It didn’t sound dangerous, just monitoring a delivery and figuring out why it was happening at night.

Or perhaps it was that it had been a while since I’d spent time alone with North. His dark musk scent and the way he was unshaven and dangerous looking did something to my insides.

North made a turn onto a road and then gazed at me, giving me the same odd expression he had when he’d witnessed me putting on the clothing I was wearing now.